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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

One Thing I've Learnt...to say THANKS

I can't believe May is almost over. It has certainly been a month I'll never forget. I'm now a published writer and The Cornish House is well on its way...still scary but a relief too. It's wonderful to be able to talk to people about it.

In the next week I will be adding a page to the blog with pictures and description of places and things in the book...for the curious. I'm just waiting for the sun to shine for the photos...

I don't know about you but I have loved all the guest posts by friends telling 'One Thing I've Learnt'. They have shared a wealth of emotional and practical intelligence. All of them in some way have been a part of my journey...so to complete the month here is mine...

I could say that the one thing I have learnt as I have moved around the world is to leave one box packed until ready to move again (a superstition from our days travelling with Schlumberger). But I have learnt something far more simple and some times harder to do- the importance of saying thank you.

After my first visit to Cornwall in June of 1989, I wrote a card thanking Mrs Fenwick (I'd only known DH about a month when he took to Cornwall to stay with his parents) for having me to stay. I thought nothing more of it. Fast forward to 2005 and my mother-in-law has passed away. I was tasked with sorting the papers in her desk. What did I find? My thank you note from my first visit kept with a dried flower... Now whether she had known on that visit that I was to become the One for her only son or if she had kept notes from all his previous girl friends (and later disposed of them or maybe they had never written any) I'll never know....But the card and the words in them had mattered to her.

Over the years I have tried to instil in my kids the importance of saying thank you and hopefully writing it down. I'm not sure it's worked and in today's word of electronic communication the next generation will not have the pleasure of finding hand written words of appreciation....

So as May ends I want to say thanks to all who have shared their wisdom on the blog this month...